Wartburg Castle and Eisenach

From Rothenburg we drove 2.5 hour to Eisenach - home of the Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther was in hiding for 10 months and during which time he translated the New Testament from Greek into German. As a result of his excommunication at Worms, he was proclaimed heretic and outlaw making it illegal for anyone to feed or aid him in any way and making it legal to kill him. His friends/supporters staged a kidnapping of Luther after the Diet of Worms and smuggled him to the Wartburg Castle.


Wartburg Castle overlooking the city of Eisenach.









The first scene in this area was a depiction of Luther's ride after the staged kidnapping by three horsemen (girls dressed as men) when he was taken to the Wartburg Castle - in the background.




The room in Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther spent his 10 months in 1521 working on the translation and other writings. A very historic place within the events of the reformation. Luther's German Bible translation is regarded by many to have become the foundation to the modern German language.



Our final shoot at the Castle was in this ornate Palace hall where the events that took place in the Worms Cathedral were played out. Very cool scene with elaborate costumes for presiding Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (to the right) and other officials of the Church. Liz had been abducted by the wardrobe ladies and had entered the scene here in between takes to adjust the Emperor's socks - hehe. She did good!



After this shoot - the film crew returned to the US while Liz and I continued to Wittenburg for still photos.

An iPhone photo by Liz of me with our Martin Luther actor Mathias and his wife. We had just completed an interview video I had conducted and shot on Sunday (Oct 31 - anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of the 95 thesis on the doors of the Church here) outside Castle Church in Wittenburg.




We spent the balance of our Sunday with Rolf Bauerfeind, His wife Danny and family in Leipzig. Rolf organized the cast and locations in Germany and was just released from a 5 year High Councel position at Stake Conference on Sunday. He was one of the first 10 missionaries to come out of East Germany in 1989 prior to the wall coming down later that year. Danny served a mission on Temple Square in 93 - 94. Both Rolf and Danny were raised in East Germany.


An East German manufactured vehicle called a "Wartburg" built in Eisenach. Same car for 50 years I guess. Rolf was thrilled to see it as we were driving back to their home from Wittenburg.

Worms & Rothenburg

So my role is that of the still photo guy. While my photos will be used for film marketing and promotion - they are primarily for a book to come out with the film next year covering the same information as that depicted in the 3 hour mini-series documentary. The film crew sets the scene up, actors and extras are directed by the film maker Lee Groberg and others, and I will generally shoot my still photos covering the scene as the scene is rehearsed. If I haven't been able to get the shots I need by the time filming is done on a scene, I will request some time with the cast and will direct them for my shots before the crew moves on to the next scene or camera angle.

After finishing up in Belgium, we all relocated to Rothenburg Germany on Tuesday. We decided to fly Liz into Germany in time for me to pick her up en-route to the next location. I left Antwerp at 4:00 AM, found liz loitering around in the US Air baggage area in Frankfurt at 8:30 or something, and we continued together to Worms, Germany - then on to Rothenburg. First auto-baun experience; pretty cool - up to 110 mph (before Liz was with me) with people passing!


The Worms Cathedral is the location of the Diet of Worms - sort of an inquisition of Martin Luther after his posting of the 95 Thesis outlining his opposition to various Church policies and recent practices. We did not do any significant scenes in Worms - only a little video footage by the film crew and my still photos of the Cathedral inside and out. The image to the left is the Cathedral interior - likely area where everything took place.

Cool lighting from the stained glass windows on the walls inside the Worms Cathedral. No monuments to Martin Luther here.















Rothenburg ob der Tauber - such a cool place. Its a small town where they have maintained the old wall from the 12th century and much of the buildings and structures. Very touristy with many shops and restaurants but a lot of it can still be used for film productions. The scene her dealt with Tyndale arriving by carriage somewhere. Shot a lot of peasant revolt stuff in this same area.


Shot from the Rothenburg wall of an adjacent village.






Carriage and horses clomping through the streets was really cool. Actor to the right - along with most extras at this location were from the surrounding LDS wards and branches - maybe 45 people. We had a hard time getting them to act anything but fun happy - everyone pleasant and smiling all the time. My still shots of rioting peasants looked more like a peasant party! Thy had a hard time making angry faces.



Group of extras en-route to the first morning shoot.









Setting up to do the scene where Martin Luther and associate post the 95 Thesis to the door of Castle Church. Actual location was in Wittenburg Germany but we shot it here - Wittenburg Church covered with Scaffolding and things.

Antwerp, Belgium

Crazy first days in Antwerp, Belgium - figuring everything out. Jet lag was no big deal. Flew into Brussels and drove my own rental car about 30 minutes to Antwerp while the rest of the crew went to scout a site for a shoot two days away. GPS navigation on the iPad is the only way to survive over here. Skinny streets and one way everywhere. Drove directly to the hotel winding through the city with no worries.

First day of shooting was in this cool underground restaurant - a converted underground sewer system from 500 years ago. We ate lunch there later - haha. This was an early morning shoot, very cold morning - started around 5:30. The crew is getting the scene set up here. It depicts a part of the process Tyndale used to smuggle translated bible documents from one place to another. He would have helpers role the documents around a stick, wrap it in a cloth and stuff it into a sack of grain for transportation. This was set in a warehouse in England. So we just shot in the corner of one of these old windowless walls of the restaurant.

The next scene was right across the street, (one car width street) above a 12th century monastery in an anxient building converted or remodeled as a home. Very very cool place. So the actors are packing the illegal translated bible documents into the sacks of grain - set in another part of England. This scene was shot in the master bedroom of the home - camera set up on a track system next to the bed.

The images posted to the blog will not likely include anything I intend to use in the book - for a number of reasons, mostly because I need to spend a good amount of time tweeking and editing before throwing them out there. So you won't see anything here that I consider to be my best stuff. I think the blog images will mostly be shots taken during setup that may include equipment or crew but convey the atmosphere of the scene.


After lunch in the sewer (very good) we headed across town to another location for the scene depicting Tyndale's arrest.







Unfortunately, one of the cast members never showed and I was abducted as substitute constable guy (the outfit wouldn't fit anyone else). It was fun and easy enough (no lines) but kept me from getting all the shots I wanted. What I shot, while in costume, will work but I would have liked to have more to choose from.







The following day was at the University of Leuven in the near-by town of Leuven where we shot 4 or 5 scenes with some 40 extras acting mostly as angry rioting peasants. Costuming is a big job. This photo is the street preacher scene where our preacher (Antwerp Ward Bishopric first counselor) is talking about how the people need an english bible they can read and understand.

Sunday was easy and brought needed relaxation. I took piles of photos of the city. This is Antwerp town center at dusk. Cathedral and many buildings here were here in the 16th century when William Tyndale lived here - photographed the home he lived in. Weird how old things are here.







Monday we shot in a museum in the city center which included a Printing shop used on occasion by Tyndale to print pamphlets and other literature. This is a central courtyard in the museum building - 15th century construction.



















Tyndale and associate working on translation. Can't remember the associate character name but the actor could be Gene Wilder's brother or something - looks just like him. Very fun scene to shoot.